A federal appeals court has upheld a district court’s ruling that social media websites Facebook, Twitter and YouTube (and the site’s owner, Google) can’t be held liable for allegedly “aiding and abetting” the actions of Omar Mateen, the mass murderer who committed the massacre at Pulse, an LGBTQ nightclub, in 2016.
Although Mateen swore allegiance to the terrorist group ISIS, and ISIS claimed responsibility for the attack, the courts ruled that the shooting didn’t qualify as an act of “international terrorism.” Without that qualification, attempts to hold the various social media sites accountable for Mateen’s terrorism have failed.
